Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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10. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the measures that will be taken to place the arts at the centre of local communities for children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47923/21]

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of my colleague, Deputy Niamh Smyth, I ask the Minister to outline the measures that place arts at the centre of local communities, with specific reference to children.

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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There are two major areas of work taking place under the remit of my Department in regard to arts in the context of the child, through the Arts Council and the Creative Ireland Programme. Children and young people participate in the arts in early learning and care settings, schools, and other education and youth work settings. These opportunities may be offered in partnership with independent and community providers. Other activities are offered outside mainstream education or youth work settings and are led by artists, specialist teachers and facilitators working in a range of organisations and community settings.

The Arts Council recognises the value of arts and cultural participation among children and young people and acknowledges their fundamental right to participate in the arts. The council supports and promotes children's and young people’s engagement with the arts from birth to early adulthood. The Arts Council considers opportunities for children to learn and develop artistic skills, and to experience the arts, as being essential to realising their rights as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Through the Creative Ireland programme, my Department continues to support community-based measures to increase and expand the opportunities for children and young people to access arts and culture-based creative activities. As part of the ongoing implementation of the Creative Youth plan, a number of measures and initiatives have been developed and delivered which have enabled increased access to a wide range of creative activities, including the arts. Key in this regard has been the establishment of Cruinniú na nÓg, the annual day of free creative activities for children and young people under 18 years of age. Cruinniú na nÓg is funded by my Department and delivered by all 31 local authorities. On Saturday, 12 June last, my Department’s support enabled more than 630 events and activities to take place throughout the country. As society begins to reopen, it is important to ensure children and young people continue to have opportunities to take part in and access a range of art activities through which they can express and enjoy themselves and develop their skills. For this reason, I will continue the important work of Creative Ireland in relation to the Creative Youth plan, and I look forward to continuing engagement with the Arts Council in its strategies to ensure ongoing engagement by children with the arts.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We know the arts play a crucial role in bringing communities and people together. We need an arts strategy that reaches into every corner of the country and, indeed, society. Planning and providing for the arts within the local communities for children is a vital part of building a strong and vibrant community. Strong supports for the arts at local community centres will create a space for communities to express themselves and for talented artists to thrive.

We have seen great success with the Creative Youth programme and Cruinniú na nÓg, as referred to by the Minister. There is an explicit commitment to enable children's participation in cultural life and the arts in Ireland through initiatives such as Making Great Art Work, which is the Arts Council strategy for 2016 to 2025.

As noted by Professor Emer Smyth of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, in her review of this topic for the Arts Council, "Children and young people’s experience of the arts and culture is clearly impacted by their parents and by a range of personal circumstances", as well by decisions "made in the public realm" on their behalf. These include, "the quality of their early childhood care and education, their school experiences, and the availability and accessibility of cultural activities after school".

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Youth plan to enable the creative potential of every young person was published in December 2017 as one of the five pillars of the Creative Ireland programme. One of the key measures taken to support young people's engagement at community level has been the establishment of Cruinniú na nÓg, as I mentioned earlier. It is the day when every young person in Ireland can experience something new and exciting and something to spark and nurture their creative skills. As with many other events and activities, unfortunately, the necessary public health measures meant that we had to shift much of the programme online and undertake it virtually. However, the engagement was still happening and that was the key point. It ensured that every child in Ireland had access to Cruinniú na nÓg activities and also enabled us to reach children in the Irish diaspora. It was interesting that what happened during Covid-19, therefore, was the broadening out of such activities.

Moving to creative schools, and similar to the response to a previous question asked by the Deputy, over the last year and a half I have sought to ensure that initiatives such as the Creative Schools programme place a particular focus on supporting young people at risk of marginalisation. To that end, I provided resources last year to enable the Arts Council to increase capacity within creative schools with additional places, 10% of the total, all of which were targeted at DEIS schools. I will be making an announcement tomorrow with my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, about new schools entering the Creative Schools programme from May 2023. There is a policy, therefore, of providing more access at all times to the arts for more children.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I am glad that we had this engagement because that is welcome news. It ties in nicely with what we were talking about previously. The programme for Government outlines a vision for Ireland where people of all ages and the arts and culture thrive. We must ensure that children are given every opportunity to express themselves, to take part in the activities of their communities and to reach their full potential. I note what the Minister said about Cruinniú na nÓg and the 630 events in that context. I commend the local authorities for their engagement with this programme and its roll-out. The promotion of the programme was excellent, given everything that was going on then.

I have two other questions on this topic. What are the Minister's plans to ensure that all parts of our communities have access to artistic facilities in their local areas, and for our children in particular? How can we ensure that the voices of children are best heard and that their needs are best met as part of the delivery of arts services in their local communities?

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The local authorities have an extensive track record of community engagement through the arts, culture, heritage and library services. The Deputy is aware of this aspect as we both served on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. These services are fundamental to developing a stronger society. Through the Creative Ireland programme and in partnership with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, my Department has supported each of the 31 local authorities to develop and implement individual cultural and creative strategies. These strategies are designed to engage local communities.

Within the 31 local authorities, priorities around programmes for children and young people exist in more than 75% of their culture and creative strategies. Good progress is being made in that direction, therefore. I also point the Deputy in the direction of the pilot local Creative Youth partnerships that have been established in conjunction with six education and training boards. Those seek to develop closer local networking and to provide more opportunities for young people to engage with creative activities outside of school and especially those who are most disadvantaged. The Creative Ireland national music education programme, Music Generation, is expanding to the remaining areas where music education partnerships have not yet been established. This amounts to nine new partnerships being established. Five have already been set up in Kerry, Kildare, Meath, Longford and Tipperary and one is being established in Fingal in 2021.